Posted on 06/21/2005 9:05:01 AM PDT by CDB
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and his aides have denied Rep. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) assertion to home-state conservative leaders that he and Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) acted as emissaries for Frist in negotiations among 14 Republican and Democratic centrists that resulted in a compromise last month on judicial filibusters.
Dr. Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council based in Columbia, S.C., said, “Graham has been meeting with groups of conservative opinion leaders to explain his actions and to comfort conservative leaders by assuring them he was sent by the Republican leadership to broker a deal.”
As a result of Graham’s assurances, conservatives’ anger over Graham’s role in the controversial deal has slackened, Smith said.
“There’s a mixture of residual anger and ‘let’s wait and see’ because he said he was sent as an envoy and dispatched by the leadership, he and DeWine,” Smith added.
Joe Mack, the director of public policy for the South Carolina Baptist Convention, who met with Graham and discussed his role in the brokering the deal, confirmed that Graham told him “words to that effect that he was assisting the leadership.”
But when asked whether he had dispatched Graham and DeWine as emissaries, Frist replied firmly “No. No.”
Amid a conservative backlash to the deal, particularly against DeWine in Ohio and Graham in South Carolina, Frist aides have told conservative leaders that they did not encourage the two lawmakers to forge a deal to avoid a floor vote on shielding judicial nominees from filibuster.
Jeff Mazzella, executive director of the Center for Individual Freedom, said, “Frist’s staff and other have assured us that they were not behind that deal and we are satisfied that they are committed to moving forward with up-or-down votes on all of the president’s nominees.”
Sean Rushton, executive director of the Committee for Justice, said, “I’ve heard it from one of Frist’s liaison people that it’s not true.”
Graham did not answer yes or no when asked by The Hill if he was an emissary for Frist during the negotiations. Instead, he described a nuanced role.
“Both leadership teams were very well aware of what was going on,” he said, referring to the Republican and Democratic leaders.
He added that “everyone knew what was going on” and that some lawmakers liked it and some didn’t.
Both Graham and DeWine have been the targets of intense conservative anger since they appeared alongside five other Republican senators and seven Democrats last month to announce a deal they struck on judicial nominees who Democrats had blocked.
The deal was announced the evening before Frist had planned to trigger the so-called “nuclear option” to strip senators of the power to filibuster judicial nominees. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the majority whip, had announced a few weeks before that Frist had enough Republican votes to execute the tactic.
“I talked to McConnell and Frist during the negotiations,” Graham said. “I think Senator Frist’s primary goal was to change the rules and, barring that, felt it was better to live and fight another day.”
Conservative leaders in South Carolina responded angrily. Mack, with the Southern Baptist Convention, said “a number of our have been concerned about that role and were looking for a vote to break a filibuster.”
Thomas Ravenel, a wealthy developer who self-financed much of his race against Sen. Jim DeMint (R) in a GOP Senate primary last year, announced shortly afterward that he would consider challenging Graham in 2008.
In Ohio, conservatives responded with similar ire, saying that DeWine’s role in the filibuster negotiations was the latest in a series of actions and positions he has taken at odds with them.
Conservatives said they would retaliate by working against Pat DeWine, the senator’s son, who ran earlier this month for the seat vacated by retiring Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). Despite having the highest name recognition in the race and having outraised his opponents significantly, the young DeWine finished a distant fourth in the race.
“His showing was extremely poor,” said Dr. John Wilke, head of the Life Issues Institute, an anti-abortion group based in Cincinnati. “A showing that bad after that good a start has reasons. Some people are saying that Mike’s business of being in the ‘Gang of 14’ hurt Pat.”
The ongoing battle between Republicans and Democrats over the makeup of the federal judiciary has been one of the highest concerns of social conservatives.
After the judges deal was struck, Ohio conservatives led by Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values, another Cincinnati-based group, stepped up its efforts to find a candidate to challenge DeWine in the 2006 Republican primary.
As conservatives in Ohio and South Carolina responded angrily to news of the Senate centrists’ deal on judges, Major Garrett, a Fox News correspondent, citing “senior Republican sources,” reported that “Frist and the Bush White House were worried enough about possibly losing the vote to end the judicial filibusters that they dispatched two conservatives, South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Ohio’s Mike DeWine, to cut the best possible deal.”
Burress said he suspects that DeWine is the source of that report.
“He will do anything he can to cover his tracks,” Burress said. “I call upon him to prove that, or he will be exposed as a flat out liar. I use that word very carefully. My sources tell me. I have people close to what’s going on up there that that’s not what happened.”
When asked about the Fox report, DeWine said, “If you look at the transcript, I never said that. What I said was that we had — people inside the meeting were talking to leaders — both sides were talking to leaders. But I never said that I was an emissary at all.”
“Lindsey and I got involved at the same time,” he added. “We looked at a early proposal and had the same reaction, that we couldn’t have an agreement where we would agree that under any circumstances we would not use the constitutional option,” the Republicans’ term for the nuclear option.
SC & Ohio Ping?
Am I missing something? The Headline says Frist blew the cover of the other two. Yet nowhere in the article could I find where Frist had confirmed that he was the one who sent them to broker the deal.
Graham is either trying to cover his butt or could it be that Bush sent him and not Frist?
But when asked whether he had dispatched Graham and DeWine as emissaries, Frist replied firmly “No. No.”
Ahh! Thanks, I see what you mean. Makes one question whether or not it was intentionally poorly written.
LOL! I see now how it could go that way as well. Thanks!
Should read "Frist exposed Graham and DeWine as LIARS!"
Lindsey Graham is turning out to be a slimey toad! He used the Clinton Impeachment as a stepping stone to the Senate and as soon as he got in he turned out to be a real turncoat and scuzball.
Yeah, right. Graham will not be reelected. Look a book deal, Lindsey.
I am so embarrassed for Ohio these days. The actions of the state's two RINO Senators - DeWRINO and RINovich - are inexcusable. I can assure those outside Ohio that the backlash towards the two has been swift and severe. It's quite possible that the two will fail to win nomination in their respective Republican primaries.
When you 'blow a cover' that means someone has exposed the truth. When a CIA agent's cover is "blown" that means they know he's CIA. In this case, Frist just exposed this sniveling little duo's tawdry lie. He never sent them to broker a deal.
As for those of us in the Buckeye State, we need to dump DeWine and get Ken Blackwell in the United States Senate. Jim Petro can then be Governor. We desperately need a Conservative Black Voice in the Senate! Two voices (Blackwell and Steele of Maryland) would be music to my ears!!
I feel for you. You folks gave us the presidential election then your senators turn on you. Bummer!
DeWine is another matter. I'm worried however that he will win a primary challenge and then lose in the general election to some wingnut 'Rat, of which there are many in this state.
I challenge any other state to come up with two worse Republican Senators than Sonovich and DeWanker. It's just horrible -- because the likely alternative (two wingnut 'Rat Senators) is even worse -- remember Glenn and Metzenbaum?
He must be ousted or otherwise what reason is there to vote?
Time for Lindsay Graham to feel the heat back home.
Graham and DeWine reaping the "rewards" for their actions as members of the RINO 7.
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